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Monday beer briefing: How much should you ask of beer?

01.21.19, BEER AND WINE LINKS

Why does craft beer think it can save the earth?
Thanks to Will Hawkes for helping me think about a question that popped to mind read last week. He writes, “A sense of purpose is part of what defines ‘craft beer’: it’s a campaign as much as a drink.” And he concludes (spoiler alert), “Why does craft beer think it can save the earth? Because that’s the entire point of craft beer.”

Those are pretty high expectations. The question that came to mind last week is, Why do we have these expectations for this thing people call craft beer? And why should they be different for breweries than for bakeries or bookstores or car repair garages? Not the first time I’ve wondered, and I still don’t have an answer. The question was provoked by Bryan Roth’s long examination of workplace harassment in breweries. Once again, jumping to the conclusion.

Given the systemic issues that surround inappropriate and unacceptable behavior in the service industry, it may not be about wiping out these problems altogether, but the unfortunate reality of chipping away, constantly and consistently. Implicit bias — the way our point of view is unconsciously impacted by our world around us — can make it difficult to recognize and change behavior.

With that for context, four links to the words we use, because (gets out drum, begins to beat) this is a discussion about beer within our culture, not “beer culture”:

If this tweet from Bart Watson isn’t displaying in your browser, bottom line is that it points out that since 2008 beer prices are up 18.2%, versus 0.7% for wine and 3.7% for spirits. That’s a reason per capita beer sales of declined. And it’s not like winemakers and distillers don’t have concerns as well. A story in the Wall Street Journal about brewers and liquor companies seeking nonalcoholic alternatives explains, “Americans’ consumption of ethanol, or pure alcohol, has declined sharply over the past couple of decades. Alcohol consumption stood at 8.65 liters per person in 2017—the most recent year for which data is available—compared with 10.34 liters in 1980.”

FROM TWITTER

Not saying I’m a worst kind of nerd but earlier I1. opened a vintage BA Barleywine on the street2. with a Mjolnir bottle opener3. and poured into a R2D2 keepcup 4. outside HP Lovecraft’s former residence5. and then posed with my Miskatonic notebook.